Improper Handling of Unicode Encoding vulnerability in the SmtpPickupDirAppender of Apache log4net.
Content that the mail file writer cannot encode, such as an unpaired UTF-16 surrogate, made the write throw. Every buffered event in the batch was discarded, not only the one carrying the content, and a truncated mail could be left in the pickup directory. A party whose data reaches a log message could suppress the records of other events. Only applications that use SmtpPickupDirAppender are affected.
This issue affects Apache log4net: from 1.2.9 before 3.5.0.
Users are recommended to upgrade to version 3.5.0, which fixes the issue.
Weakness
The product does not properly handle when an input contains Unicode encoding.
Potential Mitigations
- Assume all input is malicious. Use an “accept known good” input validation strategy, i.e., use a list of acceptable inputs that strictly conform to specifications. Reject any input that does not strictly conform to specifications, or transform it into something that does.
- When performing input validation, consider all potentially relevant properties, including length, type of input, the full range of acceptable values, missing or extra inputs, syntax, consistency across related fields, and conformance to business rules. As an example of business rule logic, “boat” may be syntactically valid because it only contains alphanumeric characters, but it is not valid if the input is only expected to contain colors such as “red” or “blue.”
- Do not rely exclusively on looking for malicious or malformed inputs. This is likely to miss at least one undesirable input, especially if the code’s environment changes. This can give attackers enough room to bypass the intended validation. However, denylists can be useful for detecting potential attacks or determining which inputs are so malformed that they should be rejected outright.